Judith C.

SISTERS, SOLDIERS, SECRETS by Judith Carlough Historical fiction, Civil War Assignment 1: Story Statement Passionate best friends—one White, one Black—run away to join the Union Army and fight for equality and independence for the slaves, only to encounter rampant bigotry and prejudice against them as women. Assignment 2: Antagonistic Forces Lowell, MA, 1862. Two best friends graduate from America’s first integrated, co-educational high school and vow they will join the Union Army to help free the slaves. But Maggie, an Irish immigrant, and Silky, daughter of a freed slave, face overwhelming opposition because they are women. The entire status quo is antagonistic: Parents want to protect the girls from the consequences of youthful impulsiveness. Society dictates that girls should be subservient and obedient. The laws of the land—promulgated by white men—prohibit women from holding bank accounts, owning property, inheriting wealth, or voting. After successive acts of rebellion, the girls are backed into a corner until they run away to the front, a defiant act they believe will indisputably prove women can endure the hardships required of soldiers. On the road, antagonistic forces dominate: Inns and cafes are segregated. Educated women/Negroes draw suspicion. Dancing freely at a country fair nearly results in a rape. A relentless Pinkerton—no better than a slave catcher—has been hired to bring the girls home. Even Mother Nature seems to have it in for Maggie and Silky. In the end, the girls are granted a military assignment where success depends on their ability to capitalize on bias, prejudice, and bigotry. Assignment 3: Breakout Titles Sisters, Soldiers, Secrets Sister Soldiers of the Civil War Women Warriors: A Story of Civil War Sisterhood Assignment 4: Genre and Comps Genre: Historical fiction, Civil War era My storyline of a grand adventure compares to Lisa Wingate’s Book of Lost Friends. My theme of the challenges of interracial friendship is similar to Sabra Waldfogel’s Charleston’s Daughter. The story should appeal to fans of Ruta Sepetys and Jennifer Chiaverini. Two unique characteristics of my story: Maggie and Silky are Northern, well-educated, and neither is master nor slave. Assignment 5: Hook Line with Conflict and Core Wounds When you’re female, the Union Army won’t let you enlist. Can best friends—one White, one Black—undertake a life-threatening journey to the front to prove women have the right stuff? Core wounds: Humiliation, double standards, gender and racial bias/bigotry/stereotyping. Assignment 6: MC Inner Conflict Part I: Sketch a scenario showing the MC’s turmoil, conflict. It’s 1862, and two best friends—one White, one Black—graduate from America’s first co-educational, integrated high school in Lowell, MA. Having been schooled on equal terms with boys, Maggie and Silky are comfortable competing—even out-performing—them, not only in the classroom but as expert riders and marksmen. This ceases to be the scenario when the Civil War breaks out and the girls want to join their older brothers at the front. The Union Army will not accept women enlistees. Their families becomes increasingly distraught with Maggie and Silky’s rebellious acts, meant to prove their competency to become soldiers. As the parents tighten the net on the girls’ activities, and resentment explodes. When the mothers hatch a marriage plot, Maggie and Silky steal a wagon and run away to the front, burdened by the pain they will cause both families. The girls question whether they should be loyal to their parents and the status quo, or to their moral compass, which directs them to help free the slaves and demonstrate that women have the right stuff. They ask, If the war is being fought to secure freedom and equality, shouldn’t women have the same rights? Part II: Show a secondary conflict in a social environment involving friends, family, associates. At the end of the journey, an elite military unit involved with spying promises Maggie and Silky an assignment. But a letter arrives from a man Maggie met on the road; an officer she passionately bedded and with whom she believes she could build a life. Maggie fears the letter will subvert her dedication to serve the Union as a spy, and cause her to betray her commitment to Silky. On the day the promised assignment is delivered from the army, Maggie weighs her options: the uncertain promise of love and marriage, or the opportunity to achieve her dream to serve the Union, free the slaves, and gain rights for women. Maggie burns the letter, unopened. Assignment 7: Sketch your setting in detail The story originates in Lowell, MA in 1862, a city essential to the Union’s war effort for its textile production. Bemouth brick factories are alive with spewing smokestacks and teeming immigrant workers jammed into deplorable conditions. Teamsters scream at mules who draw carts weighted with massive bundles of wool. Ladies in fashionable hoop skirts navigate daintily over cobblestone streets punctuated with urine and manure. Cramped wooden apartments on dark allies give way to wide boulevards that showcase the gracious homes of the mill owners and merchants. Lowell is also the location of America’s first co-educational and integrated high school, which has created a protective bubble for the main characters, Maggie O’Rourke and her comrade-in-arms, Silky Baptiste. The young women have competed with boys in the classroom and at riding and marksmanship, often out-performing them. They have been treated as the boys’ equals, and expect to be judged based on performance, not gender. This egalitarian frame-of-reference disintegrates when Maggie and Silky graduate and announce their intention to join the Union Army and help free the slaves, just like their older brothers. When their parents clamp down and restrict the girls to loathsome prayer and knitting vigils, they steal a wagon and undertake a perilous journey to the front, an act they believes will prove women have the right stuff to be soldiers and deserve the rights and freedom given men. The adventure takes Maggie and Silky through agrarian Walden Pond and Concord, MA, to the rugged wilderness and lawless backwater towns in Connecticut and Pennsylvania, where an attempted rape at a county fair almost does them in. They arrive at the mustering site of the 52d Massachusetts Regiment (where their brothers are attached), and witness tens of thousands of bored soldiers encamped on trampled fields and hillsides. The men wile away time by fishing, playing cards, cooking, making music, repairing firearms, whittling, writing to loved ones, reading, smoking, drinking, and gambling—anything to avoid thinking of the impending orders that will return them to battle, possibly death. Instead of a joyful reunion, Maggie and Silky are accused of infiltrating a military operation with treasonous intent. They are escorted by an armed guard on a steam locomotive to Washington City to be charged and punished. The final scenes take place in wartime Washington, a young city newly awash with international opportunists—mostly hustlers and hucksters—with little evidence of the fervent patriotism Maggie and Silky feel for freeing the slaves and gaining equality for women.